stuck in hong kong....

we got on the plane, enjoyed a few glorious minutes of thinking we were leaving as we pushed off from the gate, then came back in because of a water leak....

they said that we will probably get back on the plane in 45 minutes,.... which I think means I will be a day late home.... we shall see!!

i have spent the time scouring ebay for things to spend money on - and so far doing ok....

for the sake of my bank account i hope we end up on a plane soon!

Update:  Here are the "engineers" working on the plane after we got back on there for the second time and it was all clear.... 5 hours late we got to take off....

feet....

thought it was interesting....
what do you think?

Sun through barely transparent air...

The fog/pollution/cloud/humidty/smoke has been very bad this trip....
but it does make the sun look cool!

airpot lounge

Sitting in the Qantas Club in Brisbane, boarding in half an hour or so....
China for a week.... hmmmmm....
and this time by myself with MUCH less assistance from guides and that sort of thing.  I think there is a fair chance I will live through it - but I might be skinnier at the end of it!

As a result, more China photos soon I am sure.

I found and ate a "Butterfinger" yesterday... much harder to find in Australia..... it tasted goooooooood.

random Philippines shots...

Very serious looking traffic cop...

can someone please tell me why, after I have slept in it, my hotel bed always looks like it was dropped from a helicopter?

there was a typhoon off the coast, so all the billboards were folded up so that they would not collapse on the buildings and looking something like my hotel bed.....

I do have to admit, the country side was pretty.....

the hill of trudgery.....

I cannot count the number of times we walked up this hill in the rain (or swimming through our own sweat!) to set something up or check out how it went after we tested it....

and purtly lil ol me in my nice blue hard hat.... playing with dangerous toys in the mud....

Gas safety 101

first lesson... don't do either of these things...

In the Philippines...

and it has been raining like you would not believe.
I have been doing all sorts of testing involving trudging up a hill... setting up an explosion and trudging back down... all in the rain....

been fun!

Boy's costumes.

Ruth made costumes for the boys based on Deltora and Beast Quest Characters for the book week free dress day tomorrow.

I think they all worked out pretty gosh darn well.

two views of Izak..

Last week...

So, Russell and I on our way home from China, then the following day X and I just before we graded for our yellow belts in a new martial art..... Better watch out everyone, I have a yellow belt.... I think there is something about being registered as a deadly weapon and all that sort of stuff I need to do.....

Evanescence and night time...

not necessarily a good mix.... but nonetheless I went for a little night walk with my camera and my iphone...

I think I could have made it worse if I used Snow Patrol.....
I will need to experiment with that....

The night has a very bright moon... so I thought I would go for a walk and experiment with the camera on some long exposures... I learnt a thing or two.

Other random China Shots

From last week - now that I have had a chance to look through them a little.....

 This was the construction of the biggest bridge i had ever seen... (and I made it red cause I thought it really should be some kind of propaganda poster!)

all very idyllic....

I was allowed to go in and photograph the kitchen of one of the places we frequented for lunch....

A snapshot of how the traffic works.....

cooking....

A gentleman from last night who was more than happy to show off his
flaming kitchen skills for me!!

a picture for you

proof that at least once during this trip, I picked up a tool....
no proof of course that I actually used one!